Drag Queen Miss Fame on the Power of Makeup: ‘You Really Find Yourself Again and Again’

Sleek MakeUP has been a longtime favorite of beauty junkies throughout the U.K., having clutched cult status thanks to their contour, lip, and highlight products. But this summer, they’ve created something even bigger with a stateside debut and The GlowDown challenge.

In celebration of the brand’s U.S. launch, Sleek has created a four-episode YouTube series hosted by the platform’s own Laura Lee. Featuring the top talent in the beauty industry, each video puts an influencer and a drag queen star head-to-head in a makeup challenge. And on Wednesday, it became time for Sonjdra Deluxe and Miss Fame to battle it out with mythical-inspired looks.

“We were given the challenge of mythical, and when we were trying to comprehend it, I was like, ‘I have to go online really quick to double-check that we do this properly,’” Miss Fame told Yahoo Beauty. “I had to make it wearable.”

As impossible as a wearable drag queen look may sound, the makeup artist and reality television personality aimed to make the look easy to re-create. With a fierce feline-inspired cat eye, Fame did just that. A similar eye shape took form in Deluxe’s mermaid look. However, there was a drastic difference in their transformations, which they discussed together.

Fame and Deluxe mid-transformation. (Photo: Sleek MakeUP)

“It was a dream to get ready with a drag queen,” Deluxe said. “There’s so much more of a transformation that’s really going on with color correcting and creating this illusion.”

“We had different tricks we used for our different approaches,” Fame explained. “For her, it was about enhancing her natural beauty, but for me, I had to change genders completely.”

Fame went on to discuss the depth of his transformation from Kurtis Dam-Mikkelsen to the popular Miss Fame, which has a major impact on people when broadcasted on a worldwide platform.

“I had to go from walking in as a man to leaving a gorgeous, powerful woman,” Fame said. “When we all are playing with the same products and similar tricks, the one thing that I’m offering that I’m not seeing done fully is drag — it’s the most extreme. I’m not just putting makeup on my face. I’m changing the shape of my body with corsets, I’m changing the shape of my foot with a heel, I’m changing the shape of my face with a proper wig, and I’m showing how to lift the face with lift tape.”

The differences in people and styles of makeup that this video series displays are only a part of what makes up the beauty community. The one thing that seems to bring them all together makes up the foundation of Sleek’s own “My Face. My Rules” platform: limitless creativity.

“Just do whatever the heck you want,” Deluxe declared as her beauty rule. “If you feel good and look good, then just do whatever you want.”

A truth with which Miss Fame couldn’t agree more.

“Continue to make statements, but then break them,” he said. “What works for you will change again, and again. That is the most exciting part about beauty. You don’t get stuck in a box. You really find yourself again and again.”